The beef with Earls
Posted Apr 28, 2016 5:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Earls restaurants switch to hormone-free beef from a U.S. supplier through a program called Certified Humane, triggering a backlash from the Alberta beef industry.
Earls Spokesperson Cate Simpson says the restaurant chain searched for nearly three years for a Certified Humane supplier in Alberta, but couldn’t find one to meet its large demand.
“They’ve been well aware of it, they just weren’t able to increase the level of production that they have. But hopefully one day they will and we will very happily switch back to Alberta or Canadian Beef,” says Simpson.
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and Alberta beef producers say Earls should have consulted with them first, since they are working on a program that could meet all the same criteria as Certified Humane.
Adele Douglass is the executive director of the American non-profit that runs Certified Humane, and she says its standards for raising and slaughtering cattle are higher than the Canadian codes of practice.
“All this ruckus I don’t get because if the farmers in Alberta really want to increase their market they should apply for certification. And if they can’t meet the standards, do what they have to do to meet the standards, and then apply,” says Douglass.
Earls says it looked for nearly three years for a Certified Humane supplier in Alberta that could meet its large demand but was unsuccessful and had to switch to a Kansas supplier.
